Kobe Bryant, a genius obsessed with being the best

Of l decan that was uNo methodical genius, a basketball freak as a chess master, lonely, not very tolerant, fro and demanding to the maximum with his teammates. A born winner with a unique goal: to be the best of all time. Kobe Bryant (Philadelphia, August 23, 1978) is, perhaps (sorry for so many myths of the past), the brightest Laker that has given the popular Los Angeles franchise.

Bryant, the youngest of three brothers and son of former NBA player Joe Bryant, says goodbye as it was, a myth, with five NBA rings in his pocket, top scorer of his idolized Lakers after exceeding 25,192 points of the mythical Jerry West, and the fourth highest scorer in the history of the American professional league.

He was chosen 18 times for the All-Star team and took two gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, in permanent competition with Michael Jordan for being the best. They were similar on the track, but very different outside of it. Although he was the undisputed star of Californian sport, a man who could do whatever he wanted with his stratospheric salary -23 million dollars annually-, it was barely seen in public or as part of the 'star system' of Los Angeles during its active stage. In total there were 20 seasons with the team.

Then he spent much of his free time with his wife at his Newport Beach home, playing with his daughters and studying his rivals. The basket was his only obsession. Maybe that's why he hardly sleeps at night, accustomed to five or six hours of sleep to get up at dawn and crush in the gym next to his physical trainer.

Then he was flying in his private helicopter to the roof of a luxury hotel in the city center, where he concentrated A few hours before the start of each match at the Staples Center. And if there was training, the flight was to a private area of ​​the Los Angeles International Airport, then return to its Mediterranean-style mansion – acquired in 2002 for four million dollars – to take a nap, mandatory to regain strength in the face of next assault. And not only for him. He also imposed rest on some of his companions.

Bryant is a lonely man who doesn't have too many people around. Even on your computer, He is a person who is asla. He gets along with Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher, and that's it. And he doesn't even go out with them off the tracks, confirmed in an interview with THE WORLD the 'Los Angeles Times' star columnist Bill Plaschke. He is really a cold guy, like ice, that all he sees is the end result and he doesn't care what he has to do to get it. Pass over everyone, no matter who you are. It does not have much tolerance or humanity, which is fine on the court, but outside it is a problem, said the columnist.

Surrounded by Polmica

Kobe Bryant grew up in a normal family, intimately linked to the sport to which he has dedicated his life. His mother, Pam Cox, a housewife, is the sister of NBA escort John 'Chubby' Cox, while his father, Joe 'Jellybean' Bryant, was a professional player – discreetly through Philadelphia, Houston and San Diego before landing in the Italian 'Lega' – and, when he retired, in 1983, he remained linked to the world as a coach in WNBA, Italy and Japan, among other leagues.

Hence the Koglian polyglot facet, which also had to deal with the politics and scandals throughout his career. In 2003, a woman named Katelyn Faber denounced him for sexual abuse, although Fiscala dropped the charges because the alleged victim did not want to testify.

The bump of the team between 2003 and 2004 led to many changes, among them the departure of Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton, Karl Malone and coach Phil Jackson, who was replaced by Rudy Tomjanovich. Bryant became the team leader and became the second highest scorer in the league, averaging 27.6 points per game. But the season was a failure because Los Angeles Lakers failed to qualify for the playoffs.

In the 2005-06 season Jackson returned to the team and Bryant I broke the scoring record of a Lakers player to get 81 points in the game they played at the Staples Center against Toronto Raptors. A figure that also made him the second player in the history of the competition to score more points in a match, behind the 100 of Wilt Chamberlain in 1962.

In 2006 I decided to change the number of his shirt, replacing 8 with 24, which he wore in his student stage. A year later he threatened to leave the team, although the situation was redirected coinciding with his best years in the whole of Los Angeles.

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In 2008, with Pau Gasol already in the Lakers, he was chosen MVP of the season and the team came back to the championship final, which I lost to the Boston Celtics.

It was the preamble of two new titles for him and his team. In 2009 he won Orlando Magic in the final series, with Bryant as MVP, and in 2010 against Boston Celtics, winning his second best player trophy in the NBA finals.

In 2010, technician Phil Jackson left the team again and Mike Brown took his place. The results did not improve and, after a bad start to the 2012-2013 season, he was replaced by Mike D'Antoni.

On April 13, 2013, the Lakers announced that Bryant was going to be between six and nine months off for Achilles tendon rupture on the left foot that occurred a day earlier in the match against Golden State Warriors. I returned to play on December 8 of that year, days after renewing for two seasons. Ten days later, a left knee injury took him away from the courts for the remainder of the season, so he lost the All-Star Game and the World Cup in Spain 2014.

But health problems for Bryant didn't end ah. In January 2015, he suffered an injury to his right shoulder and ended that campaign. The recovery period was nine months.

After this chain of injuries, on November 29, 2015 Bryant announced his retirement at the end of the season, after 20 years in the Lakers. On February 14, he played his eighteenth and last Star Party, 15 of them as a starter, record number, and in which he had to defend his good friend Pau Gasol, already in the Bulls.

Ahead of Jordan

On April 13, 2016, he played his last match at the Angelino Staples Center, in which he scored 60 points in his confrontation against the Jazz (101-96). However, the team signed its worst historical balance (17-65). The Los Angeles team will remove the two bibs with which I played, on 8 and 24, on December 18, 2018.

Nicknamed 'Black Mamba', at the time of his retirement he was the third highest scorer in the history of the NBA, with 33,643 points, ahead of Michael Jordan, and his more than 48,500 minutes on the court placed him in sixth position of that classification. In addition to his scoring record of 81 points, in 24 games super 50 points.

Nine times he has integrated the defensive quintet of the year and in 11 he was part of the first “five” of the NBA.

He has won two Olympic gold medals with the United States, in 2008 in Pekn and in 2012 in London.

In August 2016, he presented his own investment fund, Bryant Stibel, with a capital of 100 million dollars to invest in technology, media and data companies, a project in which he works with businessman Jeff Stibel, with whom he already He has invested in several such businesses since 2013.

The city of Los Angeles proclaimed in 2016 on August 24Kobe Bryant's day (24/8, for the two bibs that he wore on the Angelian team.

He has been married since 2000 with Vanessa Laine, of Mexican descent, and they have three daughters (Natalia, Gianna -Gigi- and Bianka).

The couple reconciled in January 2013 after having initiated the divorce process in December 2011 for “irreconcilable differences”